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Commissioner Vladimir Cucic at a meeting with the leadership of Novi Knezevac

Commissioner Vladimir Cucić met today in the Municipality of Novi Kneževac with the President of the Municipality, Dr. Radovan Uverić, MP Vesna Krišanov, and representatives of the Kikinda Police Department and the Novi Kneževac Police Station. It was another in a series of meetings held in recent years due to the increased influx of migrants in that part of the country, especially in the settlements of Majdan, Rabe, Banatsko Arandjelovo and Djala.

According to Commissioner Cucić, this meeting was a part of regular activities with the Municipality of Novi Kneževac and representatives of the Ministry of the Interior, who operate in the field.

- I am glad that today we easily and simply agreed on what our priorities are and what is the order of moves and methods to channel the constant pressure of migrants, so that the population of the Municipality of Novi Kneževac is not endangered in any way, but also that the persons transiting Serbia are neither endangered, says Commissioner Cucic.

- In the last few years, having in mind the number of migrants passing through here, we have managed to keep this process under control, primarily thanks to the engagement of the Ministry of the Interior, representatives of local communities and thanks, above all, to the leadership of the Municipality of Novi Kneževac which took a constructive approach to resolving the problem without much tension. As everywhere, you have people who are ready to make tensions much more serious than they are (it is not my intention to relativize that problem). My intention is to say that two and two makes four, not seven or six. This is a process that will take time. Nobody can stop water from flowing, a good host just makes sure that the water does not harm him. Smart people, smart hosts, and my hosts today are among them, find a way for the water not to do them any harm, he said.

Commissioner Cucić emphasized that this is a continuation of activities that gave exceptional results in our country last year and the year before last. Such a mechanism can be used and improved. The problem cannot be solved in two days, only to have it come back on the third day. The pressure is great on the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Commissariat for Refugees and the Municipality, but it should be channeled and weakened to the extent that it will be painless for the citizens.

The president of the municipality, Uverić, asked his fellow citizens for patience.

- It is simply a process that we will have to live with and try to minimize the problem as much as possible. There were several other topics and solutions in the conversation. There are good and bad things in every solution. In one way, we might temporarily reduce the number of migrants, and then with that procedure, in the following period, we would increase the number of migrants. Simply, the process is very complicated, it cannot be solved only by the Municipality of Novi Kneževac, it cannot be solved by the Republic of Serbia itself. We know that migration has become a European, even a global problem. A large number of countries in Africa and Asia are moving across this territory, it is our job to reduce the harmful consequences of all that to a minimum for the inhabitants of the Municipality - Radovan Uverić emphasized.